Hallucination & Dreams
by Snowpurr226
Summary: 10 years after TLO, the camp is doing well, everything is peaceful, no demigods are dying horribly. Or so they thought. Elia and Darren, 2 new campers, set themselves on a dangerous quest where nothing is anything as it seems...
1. Feast

**Hallucinations & Dreams **

**Prologue**

"You-_whack_!-useless-_smack_!-lump of a-_swish_!-monster!"

The _dracaena_ howled as Echidna brought the whip down for another few slashes.

"You could have pounced on him and ended the fight right there! But _nooo_, you had to advance _slowly_, scaring the wits out of him. Scared enough to run away! I don't know why I even care! I should just let you rot to death here, wasting away in hunger." Echidna threw the whip away in disgust, at the same time kicking the _dracaena_ away.

She screamed as the Chimera, a fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion, body and hooves of a goat, and a huge snake for a tail sprang eagerly towards her. Echidna waved her hand dismissively, and the Chimera plunged his bloody maw into the _dracaena's_ stomach. Echidna slumped into her 'throne' as if she couldn't hear the _dracaena's_ frantic screams.

Ever since gods swore to claim their children at the age of 13, her brood had been having a hard time finding food. Some had even turned to cannibalism.

Her dear Chimera was still well fed, eating any monster Echidna thought useless. This was about 2/3 of all her children put together. Still, it would be nice to give him a treat, she thought.

A real feast of demigods. The problem was there weren't enough demigods to even make a meal, let alone a feast. They've all be taken to that infernal Camp Half-Blood, where they will learn to defend themselves.

_Curse Jackson and his stupid gift. _

If only there was some way to break through the camp defenses, then they could storm in and have a grand feast. At that thought, Echidna sat up straighter. Of course! Elder python venom, from the entrance to Tartarus could do just the trick. A demigod would have to be sent to obtain the poison, and steal the Golden Fleece, but she could always send one of her more competent offspring to sniff out a weak demigod and convince him onto our side.

Let's see, she mused, I'll choose…Lamia and Dr. Thorn. Thorn's a bit dim, but he'll be able to surprise the demigod and Lamia can do her dirty magic then. Then dear Chimmy can eat to his heart's content, as well as all those whiny brats always begging for my help. Maybe after they've had a good meal they'll shut up.

Hopefully for good.

"Chimmy, dear, go call Lamia and Dr. Thorn. I need them to do a secret mission for me. That's a good boy." As the Chimera lurched through the wall opening, Echidna gave a satisfied sigh.

This was going to be fun.


	2. Visions in the Dark

**Hallucinations and Dreams Ch. 1**

I was finally getting a perfect score on Sniper when Nico came charging into the Hotel.

Up until then, I was having a great time playing on the new game system the Lotus Hotel and Casino had installed. Sniper was my favorite game _ever_, mainly because you get to sneak up on people and threaten them with weapons. It's quite violent.

I was getting ready to jump the guy and thrash him into human soup when Nico di Angelo ran into the Hotel. He was wearing an all-black camouflage suit, his messed-up hair looking as shaggy as ever. The Hotel's servants seem to shrink away from him. I watched all this out of the corner of my eye, since I was keeping an eye on the virtual dude I was supposed to be beating up.

He spotted me and came over, keeping one hand on his sword, made of some solid black iron stuff. I knew Nico from the time he stayed at the Hotel, but then one day he mysteriously left for no reason. Now he was back.

My heart leapt as I thought about the cool things we could do before he would have to leave again. Maybe he could be my partner for the last mission on Sniper, when you have to assassinate a government official. The guy had some _seriously_ paranoid bodyguards.

Nico walked over to the game system and I noticed he now seemed a touch older, with pale circles under his eyes and a stiffer bearing. Wonder what happened out there. I went back to my game, but then he grabbed my shoulder and shook it, hard.

"Elia, we have to get you out of here." I ignored him.

"Busy." He shook my shoulder again, and tried to wrestle the game console from me. I fought back, but he pried my fingers apart and turned the game off.

"Hey! What did you do that for?" He shook his head, grabbed me by the arm and tried to drag me out of the Hotel.

"Elia, guess what! _I'm beating your high score_!" said Ria in a singsong voice.

"Who's that?" Nico asked, a _strange_ look on his face. Ria was another of my 'game buddies' and had recently come to the Lotus Hotel. She was in her late teens, but unlike other teenagers she was really cool.

"Ria's my friend. Could we abduct her, too?" He nodded and motioned for me to take her by the arm. He started walking towards the exit, pulling us along like we were in kindergarten again.

To my disappointment, none of the Hotel personnel tried to stop him, to convince him to stay one more night. He dragged us all the way out to an alleyway before I reclaimed my memories. In a flash, I remembered who and what I was.

A demigod. My mother abandoning me to Wild Orphanage, 'When the kids become animals'. The orphanage's foster mom, Lydia Wiles, beating me to a pulp. Running away, driven by dreams and hallucinations about my past and a strange camp where people like me (as in not normal) lived. I gasped, and Nico smiled sadly at me.

"Good to be back?" he asked.

I shook my head, still reeling from the pictures flashing before me, each scarier than the last. Nico whistled, and the sun disappeared. Standing in its place was a tank-sized dog.

"_Di immortales_." I had a sudden thought: Nico di Angelo is going to _kill_ me. Then I realized the dog wasn't attacking, but wagging its tail like a…dog. Nico walked right up to it and put his hand on the dog's side, whispering to it. When the dog thumped its tail in response, he turned back to us.

Ria was staring at everything dully, like she was in a dream and wasn't sure she would like wake up. I wondered why. It wasn't like this was the greatest thing that could happen.

"Ria, Elia, meet Mrs. O'Leary. She's a hellhound and will accompany you to Camp-"

"Um, what is this camp and how are we going to get there please don't tell me we are riding this tank-dog, I mean Mrs. O' Leary what kind of name is Mrs. O' Leary and what is a hellhound is it like-"

"Elia. _Elia_. You sound like Rachel." I opened my mouth to ask who Rachel was but he gave me one of his _don't-you-dare_ glares and I shut up. He sighed.

"Move now, questions later." He seemed agitated, like he wasn't supposed to be here. Ria and I got on Mrs. O' Leary hurriedly, unnerved. "Just hold on. Don't resist the pull."

Before I could ask what he was talking about the hellhound took a huge leap and everything disappeared into darkness. It was awesome, but that's just if you like the dark and scary noises and going _really_ fast. I did.

When my eyes finally registered, my brain demanded another look. _But we are!_ My eyes protested. _It's really there_. A perfect rectangle of cabins, all different in size and shape and color. A campfire and the mess hall stood to one side, while the woods and training arenas stood on the other. A bungalow, old and creaky and welcoming, stood out on the far end of the valley. I was standing on the hill, right next to a beautiful pine tree embroidered with a golden fleece.

"_Wow_." I glanced in surprise at Ria, whom I had forgotten was here. Gazing back over the strawberry fields covering the valley, I felt a sense of familiarity. Had I been here?

With a gasp, I realized I was staring at the place I had been driven to in my visions.

"This is…Camp Half-Blood."

"Yep," Nico said proudly. I jerked backwards.

"Where in _Hades_ did you come from?" He grinned.

"Shadows. We just shadow-traveled."

"_Riiiight_. Can I ask-?"

"If it's got anything to do with shadow-traveling, yes. Otherwise, no." I glared at him.

"Helpful, aren't you? Anyways, how do you shadow-travel?" He smiled, a creepy smile that reminded me of something.

"Shadow-traveling is done by bending the shadows. Most children of Hades can do it." I wasn't surprised that Nico was a demigod. I don't think anything could have.

"Hey, cool cabins. Is that a Greek training arena I've heard of those OMG that is not a beach I see over there! I _love_ beaches, so relaxing." Ria gushed enthusiastically. A furrow appeared on Nico's brow.

"Wait, you can see the camp? You can see through the Mist?" Ria looked puzzled, and she tilted her head to the side.

"Um, it's not that misty," said Ria, missing the point. Nico shook his head.

"I'm talking about a different kind of mist." I half-listened as Nico asked Ria questions, trying to figure out if Ria was a Mist-Seer or a genuine demigod.

"Well, I do have ADHD and dyslexia, but it's not much and I can still read stuff without too much trouble. Is that ok?" Ria said hesitantly, blushing. Nico frowned thoughtfully.

"A minor demigod, then. Well, it still counts." He set off down the strawberry field path, leaving Ria and I having to run to catch up to him.

"That's Hermes', this one with the grey owl thing is Athena's, and that one to the right is Ares'. Look out for Clarisse when you see her, she's not as welcoming as the rest of us."

Ria and I nodded as Nico continued. Nico was acting weirder that than I thought he could, all distant and distracted and staring at Ria. Even his voice was wrong, more like a _really_ bad recording on an outdated computer. Ria wasn't taking any notice. She was busy studying everything, wiping her finger on the dust under the Hermes cabin, sniffing at the Ares cabin's _horrible_ stench, tracing the outline of the grey owl above the Athena cabin. It was like she was writing a report on this place.

I felt really bored. All those years running from everyone, seeing visions of this place made me feel like I was watching a movie for the 54th time this week. I yawned, and on impulse, slipped off into some bushes. I stepped back into the sunlight and came up against a tall, muscular guy not more than a 100m away. He was banging away at a piece of metal, molding it into a shield with strange patterns on the front.

A Hephaestus kid. He put the shield into the furnace and I wondered what would happened if he fell into the furnace accidentally. I could almost see him screaming and yelling when a shout broke into my thoughts.

"Ahhhhh! It's burning! Get me _out_!" The guy was hollering all over the place, clawing at himself. I watched, puzzled. I was just imagining that, but he hadn't fallen into the furnace. I don't think he would have fit anyway.

Then he stopped and his eyes came back into focus. "Wait, what…" I hurried back to Nico, who I could see still chatting to Ria, on the way to the bungalow. I reached them and realized Nico hadn't even realized I'd left. Strange. When we were in the Lotus Hotel, he knew _exactly_ what I was doing every second of the day and night.

We jogged up the steps of that old house and I saw a familiar-at least in my visions-sight. A centaur playing pinochle with a small baby angel-I think you call them cherubs-like man with a Hawaiian shirt and purple jogging shorts. The centaur looked up casually.

"Ah, Nico, you're back. That took faster than we estimated. Sit down." We sat on the creaking floorboards, and Ria looked like she could faint.

"You are a…centaur. A _real_ centaur, with the back of a horse and the fore body of a man. Like the kind you see in Greek Mythology." She was taking this better than I'd expect. I would have thought most demigods stayed silent when they saw Chiron, the wisest and bravest of the centaurs, the trainer of heroes. Chiron smiled warmly at Ria.

"Yes, child. Your name?"

"Ria. Ria Goldman."

"Ah. Nico has explained what you are, correct?"

"Um, sort of. I still don't understand. You mean to say that everything in Greek Mythology is real?"

"_Precisely_, my dear. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood." He shifted and looked at me. "Elia, correct? You are a demigod I have not come across in a long, _long_ time. Not since the 1900s." I looked up at him.

"What-what do you mean?"

"Your father has been completely forgotten. Even I have forgotten his name. He simply faded from the lack of belief in him. His shrine was forgotten, his realm considered a sin. I'm afraid you are the _last of your kind_, in a manner of speaking. The last demigod your father sired."

I reeled. My dad was…not here? He was a _god_. He couldn't do such things. He was probably ashamed for having me. Perhaps he broke an oath, and was abandoning me, disowning me because he couldn't face the accusing glares of his powerful relatives.

I hardly registered running down the steps and into the woods. Running headlong through the forest was quite painful with all the prickly shrubs and branches jutting out, but I didn't stop until I reached Zeus' Fist, which actually looked more like a deer droppings pile. I didn't say that out loud, though. Zeus would've _fried_ me. I settled into the crook of the rock pile, furiously stopping tears.

_I hate you, dad_, I thought, _I __**hate**__ you._


	3. Capture and Release

**Hallucinations and Dreams Ch. 2**

"See? When the air in a thunderstorm is heated to such high temperatures, it becomes a plasma situation because the lightning heats the gas surrounding it." Jim looked at me with a mixture of eagerness and frustration.

"Exactly how high?" He sighed.

"Really high, Darren. _Really_ high." I nodded slowly.

"Ok, got it. But what about-"

_Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong!_ chimed the old grandfather clock in the corner of the caravan. I never got why my mother even bought that thing at the garage sale, but she loved it like her I loved my new iPhone 4G. Jim looked relieved, winking at me.

"Phew! For a moment there, I thought I was going to be stuck here explaining if cheese could be turned into plasma and what it would taste like after."

"Naw, I was just gonna ask if potatoes could," I joked. Jim grinned and pinched a cup of coffee from our coffee machine before leaving. I swept my books to one side with one careless brush of my hand. Opening the fridge, I spotted a bunch of chocolate muffins my mother had recently baked. It took a few moments to find right size of muffin (mum loved to make the bite-sized kind), but in the end I managed to pick the right one.

Grabbing the keys I locked the caravan door from the outside. Stepping into the field, I looked at all the people milling around, practicing lines, playing around, pretending to die a gory death as described in the script. I smiled and nodded as the actors waved to me. To them I was the little kid whose mum was one of the special-effects specialists, someone who could listen to them recite their lines and play pranks with during one of their breaks. To me they were the many older brothers and sisters who were always gullible enough to be tricked, someone other than my mum telling me about how 'that boring old man' directed with such horrible style.

At least that what they said. I had almost finished my muffin when I spotted my mum arguing, as usual, with the director of the movie, Kegan Stub. He was short and, _ahem_, plump, with tree stumps for legs. The cast and crew always referred to him as 'Big Stub.'

"Sara, I assure you, no parent would-"

"I don't _care_, Kegan! It's rated universal, so it _will_ have universal standards. You wouldn't want the reviewers to review your movie lower than a 4, would you? You need it to make it back to the top." My mum's tone was like what the 'big guns' in movies used to insult the main character and that he better get lost _fast_ before they squashed him.

When my mum used it, the poison was multiplied by 1,000. I swear it could even make Darth Sidious cringe. Unfortunately, Big Stub has the tendency to not listen to people.

"Well, I'm telling you that you needn't worry about the children. It is so mature that-"

"And I'm telling you that teenagers don't even need to know what the story is about to watch it. What will happen when they come home and tell their younger siblings?" I was about to sneak up and say 'Hi, mum' really loudly when they both spotted me. They both started talking to me, voices rising 10 decibels a second.

"Whoa, ok, that's loud enough, thanks." My mother and Big Stub fell silent while I continued. "Maybe you're looking at this all wrong. Isn't there a way to tone the goriness down a bit while still keeping the original idea?" I made it sound like I knew what I was doing. "Maybe you could put dead bunnies instead of skeletons, for example." My mother was glaring me down like those evil ladies who always distracted the hero and then gutted him like a fish, but '_smart-as-a-tree-stump'_ Stub was delighted. He shook my hand enthusiastically, then walked away muttering about Hello Kitty. My mum and I watched him go, then looked at each other.

"_Bunnies_?" she arched an eyebrow. I winked back.

"Haven't you seen the movie 'Revenge of the Bunny Zombies?" We both started laughing. My mother and I had made the movie when I was a little kid about mutant bunnies taking over the house of this little kid who'd taken care of them, then killed them in 'creative' ways. It was based on this kid down the road when we'd lived in an actual house that treated his dogs to 'special' whippings and poisoned their food. I don't what happened to him when he was a baby, whether the doctor was an evil scientist who wanted someone to carry on his evil work or if the kid was just born that way.

When we recovered, I told my mum I'd go and find out what Jim was doing and maybe grab a bite to eat before dinner. She said go ahead, and even gave me some extra pocket money. That's the best thing about my mum; she knows what you need even before you've had a chance to think about it.

I walked casually around the cans parked around the movie set. Most of the actors didn't have traveling caravans so they stayed in hotels nearby. The few that did (like my mum and I) were usually specialists of some sort. I whistled, feeling like nothing could ruin my day at this moment.

That was when it did.

_Slam_!

My breath left my body and I gasped as a dark shape leered over me. I blinked, then blinked again. A man with different colored eyes was holding me by the scruff of the neck effortlessly, but that wasn't the scary part. The scary part was that behind him a tail of _spikes_ swished from side to side, and if that didn't set your internal alarms off, I don't know what will. He narrowed his eyes, but I was mostly focusing on the group of spikes lazily hanging inches from my face. Then a harsh voice rang out.

"Dr. Thorn, you had your orders." Dr. Thorn turned slowly, like he didn't want to hear.

"I know them well, Lamia. But mother did not specify what we had to do to keep him detained. As long as he is alive, I should think mother would be satisfied."

"Mother will be _satisfied_ when she sees this boy brought to her lair alive and _fully functional_. Anything less will result in consequences for you and you only, because mother favors me." Dr. Thorn growled and shifted so he was facing the voice, and I got a good look at the speaker.

A _way_ too good look.

She was like Ursula in The Little Mermaid, but I was sure she didn't only want to harm Ariel. Her body was a swirling mass of tentacles, all slimy and gross. Her face wasn't much better. Her features looked like she frequently had fights with a meat grinder and _always_ lost.

"Mother won't favor you if I say you didn't do anything to aid in the capture of this boy."

"Ah, but will she believe you?" As they tried staring each other down, I squirmed weakly. Dr. Thorn turned back and I got a look into his one-brown-one-blue-eyes. I stared back, wanting to show him I wasn't _that_ helpless. Then the look in his eyes shifted and I found myself watching him thrash around in-grapevines? He was definitely screaming in fear.

I squeezed my eyes shut and, purely on instinct, imagined him _really_ in the grapevines.

It happened in an instant.

"Argh!" the monster yelled, dropping me like a rag doll. I slid to the floor, then struggled to my feet. Lamia-Ursula no. 2-looked shocked and for a moment, no one made a sound. I struggled to stand, but Dr. Thorn managed-by pure luck-to grip my arm weakly. In a panic I pulled back, and my whole arm exploded with pain. I think there was a _ripping_ sound but I'm not sure. All I know is I managed to pull myself out of Dr. Thorn's grasp and stumble back, by whole right arm bleeding from the shoulder to the wrist.

Then I forced myself to my feet with strength I didn't know I had and ran like a personal hurricane was chasing me. I didn't look back once.

I don't know why but I didn't run back to the set. I just felt this pressing urge to run _away_, like you get when you need to go to the bathroom and everything just doesn't matter. Hm, maybe I shouldn't have used that metaphor.

Anyways, I ran. I did cross-country whenever my mum and I could settle down long enough for me to join a club, and I was pretty good at it. This time, though, I ran faster. I didn't even know where I was going, just that I had to go where my legs took me.

They carried me all the way along a highway bridge and to a place called 'Long Island Sound'. I always thought it funny that the island was actually quite long and thin. I had slowed down to barely a jog now, running on reserve power. I really don't remember getting all the way to this valley with strawberry fields surrounding it and some sort of camp in the center. I only made it to the top of the hill with this _huge_ pine tree overlooking the valley. It looked strong and beautiful, but right then I hardly noticed.

I just collapsed, falling to my knees and hitting the soft grass with hardly a bump. Just before I blacked out I noticed that despite it being nearly dark, two figures were walking in the strawberry fields and talking animatedly. They even laughed a couple of times.

One of them finally noticed me and my last look of them was their sneakers running towards me.


End file.
